Shin Eun-Jung

There are few historical dramas with an interesting female lead… whose interest goes beyond “I want to rule” or something generic like that. But the lead female in Faith is by far the most interesting character in the show – and she’s interesting for lots of reasons. The girl wants TONS of things – cause the world is full of possibilities and she’s crafty and resourceful and full of life and energy. And she’s not the only one! No, no, no, my fine friends, there are a multitude of interesting ladies in this show. In fact, the ladies are JUST AS INTERESTING AS THE MEN! Gasp! Equal representation in a historical drama? Be still my feminist heart. This show has ladies with humor, personality, individuality, sexuality, and self interest. Heck, there are even female guards in this show. It’s awesome.

Faith is a show that knows its strengths and weaknesses and plays both correctly. It doesn’t have great action, but it will distract you with a handsome lead. Heck, they even let him get away with abandoning the top knot in favor of a fan favorite bangs. There isn’t too much political tension, but there’s fun characters. Loads of them. Faith is a fish out of water via time travel story… as well as your basic “kings trying to keep their thrones while their court plots against them” story. There are fantasy elements, people with special powers, magical portals to different times… but that’s about the extent of it. It’s a bit long, a bit cheesy, a bit under dramatic for something that should be more dramatic, and definitely light on the action (for my taste – I prefer much more sword play!). The romance is PG at best. Yet it was still extremely enjoyable just for having so many refreshing elements and unique characters! If only we could have such well written characters in other historical shows, eh? To dream!

Overall Rating 7.5/10. Lee Min Ho Looks Cool With A Sword Even If He Doesn’t Know How To Use It.

Two things were made abundantly clear by this cute, odd, quirky, melodramatic, supernaturally-tinted show. One, Yang Jin Sung is a adorable! Two, Lee Hong Ki… maybe not so much. Don’t get me wrong, I love this little guy… but he just doesn’t have the chutzpah for leading male status, in my humble opinion. Yang Jin Sung, however, blew me away. I actually didn’t realize it was the same actress playing two characters until the end of episode one, she was that good. Her face is so expressive and she can go from sticky sweet to hardened bitch face in two point five seconds and both are perfectly believable. My favorite is her little lip curl – which makes me think of the famous lip curl of Jang Keun-Suk. I’ll be bookmarking her other dramas and watching them soon.

Bride of the Century is mainly a story about women. It’s about a rich, rich family with a sexy ghost watching over it for generations… but she demands payment for her services, in the form of the first wife of the first son of each new generation. This is a conundrum for the mom of the current first son, as she wants him to marry the gal of her choice but needs to get that sacrificial first marriage out of the way before her plans can be realized. So it’s scheming demon, and momma is willing to go to great devious lengths to get what she wants… but soon finds herself at war with another momma who doesn’t plan to lay down her daughter’s life without a fight. It’s the behind the scenes battlefield that so many women wage wars on and claim victories over. The battlefield of other women (dead and alive). It may the be the worst thing patriarchy has done to humanity – setting women against women. But it’s a great thing for dramas and novels.

Overall Rating – 8/10 – You Can’t Trick A Ghost With A Doppelganger, But You Can Trick A Man.